Cylindrical containers, such as drums, do not maximize floor and pallet space for storage and transport. It would be desirable to provide a container in a rectangular shape to maximize storage of material on the footprint of a standard pallet.
Conventional rigid containers, such as drums, for the storage and transportation of flowable or fluid materials are bulky and heavy even when not in use. It would therefore be desirable to provide a lightweight container constructed of cardboard or the like. One drawback associated with the use of cardboard is the tendency of cardboard to deform from a rectangular cross section toward a circular cross section.
It is known to provide reinforcements to prevent such deformation, but reinforcements can be complex, heavy, and expensive. It is also known to provide the container with additional layers of cardboard to increase the strength of the container. One drawback associated with cardboard containers having increased layers is the difficulty associated with bending the increased thickness of the container into a stable corner. The additional thickness of the material prevents the formation of a sharp corner, causing the material to bias the corner toward a more rounded corner.
It is also known to remove material in a generally v-shape to facilitate the bending of the material to create a corner. One drawback associated with removing material is the weakness of the resulting corner associated with the reduction in material.
Another drawback associated with removing material is the additional time and expense associated with removing the material.
Yet another drawback associated with the removal of material to form a corner is the precision required to provide the desired corner without removing too much material and leaving the corner subject to failure.
It is also known in the art to crease the material to form a corner. While such a crease may work for cardboard structures having a thinner sidewall, for thicker containers having three or more layers of corrugation, it is often difficult to provide a crease sufficient to create a corner that does not bias toward an open, rounded, and weaker orientation. It would therefore be desirable to provide a lightweight, flexible container having increased wall thickness with a corner that is strong and that resists bias toward an open configuration.